Boris Johnson has told Conservative MPs the one metre plus rule for social distancing is still set to be scrapped in June.
A news outlet reported that the Prime Minister said that eliminating the measure was the single most important difference the government could bring about to get Britain’s pubs back into action, and he was keen for the rule to be scrapped by June 21.
Industry leaders have warned that as long as the rule is in force, pubs, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and other hospitality businesses remains financially unviable, having to legally keep customers separated while using their premises.
Many have had to keep their doors shut during the coronavirus crisis.
Britain’s daily COVID deaths have dropped by more than a third in a week as seven more victims and 2,874 positive tests were recorded. Yesterday’s infections were up somewhat on the 2,657 last Thursday, an increase of about 8 per cent, but the national case rate has remained stable since April.
More than 37 million people have now received one vaccine dose, the equivalent of more than 70 per cent of all adults, and 21.2 million are completely protected.
But the rise of the Indian COVID variant has sparked anxieties that plans to achieve social distancing measures were in danger, but on Wednesday Boris Johnson told the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs he was confident about removing the one metre plus rule next month.
He said that they were confident that they can do it at the end of the road map, and Boris Johnson continued that it depended on figures continuing in the right direction.
One MP who was at the 1922 meeting said that Boris Johnson appeared surprisingly upbeat about removing the one metre plus rule next month.
Chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, Emma McClarkin, welcomed the news.
She said that given pubs are financially unviable under the current restrictions they face, being able to reopen without any restrictions at all from June 21 is going to be essential to their continuance.
It comes amid a flicker of hope for a return to normalcy as England and Wales’ rapidly shrinking COVID outbreaks were laid bare by an interactive map that revealed approximately 90 per cent of more than 7,000 neighbourhoods saw no deaths from the virus last month.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data reveal April was the first month since August 2020 where the number of deaths was below the five-year average, with fewer than 1,000 virus-associated deaths.
By scrapping the rule he will be giving everyone a choice, and those people that want to get back to normal life can. Those that are still filled with fear and anxiety, as if they’ve developed agoraphobia can of course steer clear of venues with no social distancing, so there will be a choice all around, which means it will be a win-win situation.
The thing is, will this virus mutate all the time, and will that mean that we will have to keep having vaccinations, and like the flu jab, will we have to be vaccinated every year from now on? And if so, have these vaccines been turned into weapons?
And should Boris Johnson be taking it more slowly because he’s made far too many blunders as it is because of his liberal attitude – mistakes that have cost tens of thousands of lives, and it isn’t over yet? But also now that we’re allowed to hug people I assume that the one-metre rule is long gone, and I certainly never thought that living freely would become an act of rebellion.
